The Eye of the Hand and Perfect Love

His. We say that the small ones are those who do not commit evil for fear of punishment. Does it not stand, 'His mercy is to me'? The magnitude of God's mercy is taken away if you add 'to me'. It is general. We make it somewhat particular. If we make it that it is for a diligent one or an expert, we have not made it for that one alone, but for every diligent one, for every expert. Therefore, it is not necessary to have 'to me'. Someone self-loving added it.

But I said in my ecstasy, 'I have shrunk away from the presence of your eyes.' Concerning his former state of being he speaks, in which he sought and was troubled. This is ecstasy at the magnitude of the wonder. And being amazed at the economy of the concealment of the goodness of God, I thought it had been cast away from the presence of the eyes of God, from whose presence the one unworthy of His presence, practicing evil, is cast off. However, this one is not as evil as the one becoming so by his own will outside the presence of God. Cain, therefore, was such; for 'Cain went out from the presence of the Lord God' (Gen 4:16). He consented to evil, embraced ungodliness, and became an advocate of thoughtlessness. Concerning Adam, however, it is said that the Lord 'drove out' (Gen 3:24). But he who strives to be inside is driven out. And he was not as evil as Cain.

And he who says these things said: since such things happened, and according to the image, the economy of the concealment of the abundance of your goodness from those fearing you, I thought it had been cast away from the presence of your eyes. And it is possible even thus: just as all those having come by faith are 'the body of Christ' and 'members in part' (1 Cor 12:27), so also of the divine powers, the fullness of the rational powers is the body of God. And just as concerning the members of Christ we say that the discerning eyes are called, and the practical hands, and the feet 'not slothful in diligence'—this is 'the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you' (Mark 7:42), nor can the hand say, 'not...

"I am from the body, because I am not an eye." And behold: the eye of the hand is greater, and this discerning eye is not able to observe the economies to say, "I have no need of you"; for you know that the hand has a practice which the eye previously could not do. For indeed it is like this, that the greater cannot say to the less, "I have no need of you." Discerning men are eyes of God. And he says: because I have come upon things and did not perceive them, I am not an eye. I have therefore said this: perhaps I have become outside the eyes of God, the discerning men who see with the intellect.

Because of this, you have heard the voice of my prayer. Because of this, you have heard that I have known how far I had fallen from the eyes of God. Love the Lord, all his holy ones. The holy ones are those who make right what is just toward God, those who keep that which the Savior said: "Render to God the things of God" (Matt 22:21). "Love the Lord"; observe toward what this is said: from which the mercy of God was hidden, they were fearing. And we took the explicit word of John and clarified it thus: "Perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment, but the one fearing is not perfected" (1 John 4:18). Perfect love, therefore, is when someone, loving toward the good, flees from the evil; not because of the fear of punishment does he remain away from evil, but because he has a genuine passion toward the good. And the opposites are incompatible.

For the Lord seeks truth. The truth of God is unique; for "I am the truth," the Savior says (John 14:6). And a certain truth comes to be in those who participate. And just as it is regarding knowledges and virtues—we do not say of each of the knowledgeable ones that he possesses all knowledge, but a certain knowledge, that is, a particular one. So whoever the knowledgeable ones may be, so many particular knowledges they are, and whoever they may be...